I only had a couple hours the last day due to a planned trip to Seattle to meet up with my daughter for dinner and have a “play day” with Dennis to celebrate his 63rd.We just returned, having soaked ourselves in a 50 year retrospective of Patti Warashina’s work at the BellevueArts Museum (as well as two other really interesting sculpture exhibits).
Patti’s exhibit occupied the entire third floor and at one point I had to go out into the courtyard and close my eyes for a while.My inner dialog went something like this: “Who the hell do I think I am to call myself a professional artist?I haven’t done anything but class work for an entire year. I don’t even carry a sketch book with me. I’m 65 years old and I still don’t have a handle on what I want to do or how I want to do it. Blah blah blah. I will never have a museum retrospective or even show in a major galleryBlah blah……..sigh… but do I really care? Didn’t I decide a long while ago that I didn’t have the stamina to play the Fame Game? That I just wanted to make art and sell it myself and die knowing I enriched some people’s lives with my images…?” and then I got up and went back to see the rest of the exhibit.
On the drive back I dozed in the car and by the time we got home I had made notes for a half dozen conceptual paintings I want to do. Allegory. Metaphor. New fresher painting approach with stronger forms. I can’t wait to finish setting up the studio and start painting again, everyday, like I did this last week.
So here’s the last little (8 x 10) painting of the 5 day intensive to honor the space I was working in when Variation #4 came to be.. It was inspired both by Matisse’s Studio Under the Eaves and a comment made in the crit on Thursday: “Moving out into the sun room was a really good move for you.”
Henri Matisse:
Moving my head out into the sun is also a good move. Wish me luck with that.
Did not take a nap today so I’m a bit loopy. I squandered that half hour by being late, so worked through with only a lunch break. My goal for the day was to resolve the big painting #3 and start another Variation #4 on a 24 x 30 inch canvas. (side note here: I […]
I had the sense to find a quiet place to stretch out for a short nap this afternoon. This is something Dennis and I, and a great many other sensible people around the world, do everyday after lunch. For me 30 minutes down buys two hours or more in the evening. Missing my siesta and […]
Today I pushed. I’m pooped and pumped. Decided to work bigger and so prepped some canvas last night for today’s efforts. 30 x 40 inches? Didn’t measure. Doesn’t matter – you get the idea. At the venue this morning I did a quick acrylic wash of red/ pink over the white ground and then finished […]
Through a friend I was included in a five day painting intensive that began today. Nine to four Monday through Friday with Jef Gunn coming in for the last 2 hours of each day to give us feedback. I had no idea how I was going to utilize these workdays amidst 17 other painters. Jef’s […]
Slowly, slowly our studios are coming together in the lower level of our Portland home. The big delay has been due to installing in-floor radiant heat to replace the baseboard heaters in the house. Doing that meant having access to every bit of the ceiling downstairs so there wasn’t much point in unpacking our studio […]
First of all the word giclee is pronounced zhee-klay. Who knew? The French word “giclée” is a feminine noun that means a spray or a spurt of liquid. The word may have been derived from the French verb “gicler” meaning “to squirt”. If you find that amusing, I do too. The “squirt” refers to the […]
Before we knew we had buyers for our home in the Applegate Valley we decided to go ahead with hiring a web designer to re-do the website I had been cobbling together for the last decade. It had begun to take on aspects of the Winchester House with stairways leading nowhere and doors opening to […]
All that effort to sell our country home via the internet finally paid off in August when we were contacted by a young couple who had been living in Uganda for five years and were ready to bring their family back to the U.S. They saw the video tour of our property and after sending […]
Another 8 weeks with Gabrielle before I bow out of class for the spring/summer when too many Fridays are already scheduled with events. Last week Gabe did a demo painting a model for the whole three hours while we sketched. I’m glad for this instruction at this time, when I am finishing Noah’s Guitar and […]
